A Creature in My Bloodstream
by youheldyourbreath
Summary: After finding a mysterious object on a field trip to a cave, the gang's hidden and most deadly characteristics begin to show themselves, more powerful than ever before. It's up to them to figure out what's causing their strange behavior before they tear each other and themselves apart. (Stiles & Lydia's POV) (Post-3x07, Pre-3x08)
1. Bewitched, Bothered, Bewildered

**Author's Note: Just a quick note that this is a collab story in which I (my personal account name is IrisCandy) write Stiles' perspective. Lydia's perspective is written by misfitwolves. I hope you enjoy!**

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"Can someone remind me again why this is even in the school curriculum?" Stiles asked.

They were standing in the mouth of a cave, breathing heavy from their climb up the small mountain. They stared into its dark depths with various expressions of dread and disgust, watching as their classmates made their way inside cheerfully.

"It's not. It was Ms. Blake's idea," Allison replied, standing next to Scott with twitchy fingers. Stiles knew it was taking her every shred of willpower she had not to grab his hand, and he wanted to roll his eyes at the sight. _Why_ they didn't just start dating again was beyond him.

"What a treat," Isaac said, moving ahead. He was significantly more irritable and sardonic ever since Boyd's death and Stiles felt a pang of sympathy for him. He was quite familiar with the tactic of glazing over painful emotions with sarcasm.

"You know, I'm still trying to digest the fact that she and Derek have a _thing_," Stiles said, melding his fingers together as if to represent the _thing _in question.

"No, I can see it," Lydia piped up from beside him. Everybody turned their heads toward her with skeptical looks.

"What?" she asked defensively, crossing her arms. "She's bland and boring - judging by her wardrobe and career choice - and Derek has no personality whatsoever. They're perfect for each other."

Maybe she had a point. But Stiles was a little too caught up with her feet to really consider it.

"Lydia, why are you wearing heels?" Stiles asked, but Lydia just raised an eyebrow, confused.

Stiles sighed dramatically, splaying his hands out in case she didn't notice the huge cave opening in front of them. "We're going _caving_. It's going to be dark. And wet. And slippery. Not to mention disgusting-"

"Yes, Stiles, I know what I'm doing. Thank you for your concern, but I'd rather drop dead than get caught wearing _flats_," Lydia said, flipping her hair over her shoulder and making her way into the cave behind Isaac.

Stiles followed them grudgingly. He, Allison and Scott were already too far away from the rest of their class - not that they cared.

They entered the vast cave and were immediately surrounded by the smell of petrichor and an uncomfortable humidity. Stiles craned his neck to look up, and saw only a boring cave ceiling with a few icicle-like rocks hanging above them. Rockcicles.

He smiled at his pun but his face fell when he grazed his hand along the cave wall, and saw how easily the rocks and dirt gave way beneath his touch. If there were an earthquake right now, those rocky knives on the ceiling would come crashing down and impale them all.

Funny how death was a constant thought in his mind since the night his best friend had been bitten.

They hung back from their classmates and heard the tour guide's muffled voice a few meters ahead. Stiles and his friends basically sighed and huffed their way through the cave for a full fifteen minutes before he saw it - a gleam in the darkness of the rocks.

His curiosity propelled him toward the cave wall where he saw a crevice large enough to shove his arm through right up to the elbow. There was something in there, sitting dormant deep inside the crack, and Stiles couldn't help his natural tendency to touch things he shouldn't.

"Stiles, _what_ are you doing?" Lydia asked as Stiles kneeled down and reached into the crevice, his tongue sticking out of his mouth in concentration.

"There's something-" he grunted, and now Allison, Scott and Isaac were all making their way toward him, standing around with crossed arms.

"It could bite you," Scott said flippantly.

"Good, maybe I'll become a werewolf too. Or some kind of reptile cave-dweller," Stiles said, reaching further and scrunching his face up with the effort.

Before anyone could respond to that, Stiles spoke up again. "I think..." he grunted and tried to shove his shoulder through the opening, his fingers grazing the object. Finally, he latched on to it and pulled himself out, leaning against the cave wall. "I got it."

"Was it worth it?" Lydia asked flatly when Stiles massaged his shoulder with a grimace.

"I'm not sure yet. Look at this thing," Stiles said, furrowing his brow as he examined it.

It was a rock sphere, about 4 inches in diameter. At first, Stiles was almost disappointed that maybe what he'd found was just an incredibly symmetrical rock, but he swore he saw it gleaming. That was what caught his eye, after all. At a certain amount of pressure from his fingers, Stiles was almost startled when the top half of the sphere _moved, _like there was a break in the middle that connected the halves together.

"What the hell?" Stiles asked, twisting the top half around and around when suddenly, engravings made themselves visible on the bottom half.

"Those were _not _there before," Allison said.

"What does it say?" Isaac asked, moving closer.

"It's in another language," Stiles said as he got up from the cave floor. The letters were crammed together, filling the entire bottom half with writing that seemed to be _glowing_. The glow was a dim green color, like it was only a trick of the light on the rock's surface.

"Give it to me," Lydia said, gesturing impatiently for the rock, but Stiles hugged it to himself indignantly.

"Are you the one who stuck your arm in the dark and creepy hole to get this thing? No, I don't think so," Stiles said.

"Are you the one who knows twelve languages?" Lydia said in a dangerously low voice.

Stiles eyebrows shot up, and he looked around at the others to see if they were as shocked as he was. "Twelve- _twelve _languages? Lydia-"

"Would you just give it to me?" she snapped, holding out her hand again. Stiles reluctantly obliged, but the moment it left his hands, the engravings disappeared.

Everybody paused, looking at the rock with wary confusion.

"What the..." Isaac said slowly.

"Look, maybe we shouldn't be playing with it," Allison suggested.

"What if it's like..." Stiles flailed his hands wildly, trying to find the word. "Bewitched, or something."

"Bewitched," Lydia said flatly.

"_Yes! _Like the cursed object that everyone's always after in stories and fairytales," Stiles said.

"Or _maybe _some kid dropped their toy last time they came on one of these pathetic tours," Lydia said, and she slapped the sphere back in Stiles' hands.

"You've dated a lizard and are standing right next to _two_ werewolves and you won't believe that just maybe this thing is-"

"Stiles," Scott interrupted him. There was awe in his tone.

Stiles looked over at him and saw that he, Isaac and Allison were all staring down at the rock in Stiles' hands with wide eyes.

The engravings had reappeared the moment it touched his flesh.

"Okay, seriously-" Stiles said, and he put the sphere on the ground in front of him where the engravings disappeared the moment it touched the ground. "Oh my God."

"So what, does it have some kind of connection to you?" Allison asked.

"No! No, don't say that. Bad things happen when you say things like that," Stiles said.

"Maybe it's only doing that because you touched it first," Scott suggested.

"What if it's latched on to me or something-"

"Stiles, calm down. It's a rock. Now could you please hold it up so I can see it?" Lydia said, and Stiles picked up the rock again with a bit of a grimace on his face.

Lydia narrowed her eyes in concentration as she scrutinized the sphere; a look that Stiles had always thought was extremely adorable on her.

"It's ancient Greek," Lydia commented.

"Well, how are we supposed to read ancient Greek?" Stiles asked.

Lydia raised an eyebrow at him before looking back at the rock and all Stiles could think was _no way. _

But yes, of course Lydia Martin could read ancient Greek. She spoke slowly as she translated. _"We are but the children of darkness and evil, we make people do the most regrettable deal. Let us introduce ourselves to you...so you'll know who is who."_

There was a pregnant pause amongst them as they all let that sink in.

"Well that sounds substantially creepy," Stiles said.

"That's not all," Lydia said, but Isaac stopped her before she could speak again.

"We can't. Not here. Ms Blake is starting to freak out over missing kids," Isaac said, tuning into his werewolf hearing.

"Let's go," Scott said, tugging at Stiles' backpack. Stiles twisted the top of the rock again and the engravings disappeared. He shoved it in his bag and they began running deeper into the cave before someone did something drastic like ask the class to buddy up and call the police.

Stiles had a sinking feeling in his stomach. _It's a rock_, Lydia had said. But Stiles knew that for once in her life, Lydia was wrong. He knew it wasn't just a rock, and that had nothing to do with his heightened sense of paranoia. This was supernatural and they all knew it. He wanted to forget what Allison had said about his _connection _with it, because she was probably right about that and what did that even mean? Just because he touched the stupid thing didn't mean it was going to latch on to his soul forever and ever.

Or worse.


	2. It's Never the Heels

**Hola misfitwolves here! Hope you enjoy the next chapter of the story and the first chapter from Lydia's perspective!**

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After a very long ten minutes of navigating through tunnels, using Scott and Isaac as guides, to catch up to the rest of the class whilst also trying to not slip in her five inch heels, Lydia was not a happy girl. Her mood only got worse as she had to first sit through the elaborate lie that Scott and Stiles came up with to deal with Ms Blake, and then endure another half hour of these stupid, but geologically fascinating caves; all the while still trying not to fall over. So maybe Stiles had been right and heels weren't the ideal footwear to go exploring caves in, not that she'd ever admit that to him, heaven forbid that Lydia Martin be proved wrong.

They were nearly at the exit of the cave when it happened: distracted by her thoughts, the fact that this godforsaken trip was nearly over and her determining of the chemical composition of the ever-changing coloured stalactite above her _(calcium carbonate obviously, but also, was that trace amounts of copper sulphate? And something else…)_; she slipped. Bracing herself for the inevitable pull of gravity, Lydia instead found herself in someone's arms. A one Stiles Stilinski's arms.

"I told you heels weren't the best idea." He said with a small smile whilst he helped her up gently by the hand.

She shrugged and tilted her head up slightly in a rather defiant manner,

"It wasn't the heels, I was distracted."

Stiles quirked an eyebrow, "By what?" He asked, she sighed and with a slight roll of her eyes, pointed upwards.

"The rockcicles?" he asked, raising both eyebrows this time. She looked up at him frustrated for a split second.

"The stalactites," She corrected, "I was distracted by the chemical composition of the stalactites."

It was now that she realised how close they were and that Stiles still held her hand, but for some reason unbeknownst to her, she didn't want to step back or for him to let go.

"Huh, they're the same kinda colour as the sphere." Stiles' voice snapped her out of her thoughts and she raised an eyebrow imperceptibly.

"They_ are_ both from the same cave and therefore must have the same chemical structure, well," She paused and pursed her lips ever so slightly,

"At least they should have." Stiles nodded in response, taking in what she had said before he looked down at her, really looked at her and asked,

"You okay?" She frowned,

"You slipped? You okay, nothing sprained or anything?" He clarified, to be honest she was a little taken aback by his concern before she reminded herself that this was Stiles she was talking to, he was almost always concerned about her and shook her head in answer to his question. Their faces were impossibly close as she looked up at him again and uttered a small "I'm fine."

As her eyes flickered to his lips and –

"Come on you two, we're going to miss the bus!" Allison yelled from more than a few yards away.

_How long had they been standing like this?_ Lydia quickly wondered as she removed herself from Stiles' arms _(when had that happened?) _but kept hold of his hand to pull him along swiftly to the exit of the cave and toward the rest of their friends; where she begrudgingly dropped Stiles' hand after a pointed look from her best friend, urgh like _she_ hadn't been itching to hold Scott's hand the entire trip. _Why _they didn't just start dating again was beyond her.

They filed onto the bus and Lydia, ignoring the sudden urge to sit next to Stiles, instead went and sat next to Allison a few seats behind the two boys. Allison gave her a look,

"What?" Lydia asked annoyed, Allison shrugged in response before she asked the question that she had clearly been dying to ask since they had left the caves

"So what's going on with you and Stiles?"

Lydia levelled her gaze on Allison before she answered.

"Nothing," she said steadily, "I slipped and he caught me, that's all."

Allison raised her eyebrows but let it go, seemingly satisfied with Lydia's answer. For now at least. The two sat in a comfortable silence before Lydia broke it.

"Do you think Stiles is cute?"

The words were out of her mouth before she even knew what she was saying, Allison, though a little taken aback, answered nonetheless,

"Yeah, I guess, I mean his longer hair does make him look pretty hot but – "

"Really Allison?" Lydia interrupted, "Your ex-boyfriend's best friend? A little tasteless don't you think?" She continued with more than a little venom lacing her voice.

"What the hell Lydia? I was going to say that I only see him like a brother, are you sure there's nothing going on between you two?" Allison asked confused at Lydia's sudden outburst. She blinks at Allison a few times, what was wrong with her?

"No, nothing, I'm sorry I don't know what came over me."

Allison frowned at her but nodded, "It's okay." She looked like she wanted to say something else but Lydia's phone interrupts her, it was a message from Stiles, _speak of the devil and he shall appear _Lydia thought sarcastically.

_**Switch places with Scott. Need to talk to you.**_

Allison read the text from over her shoulder, "Go on." She said with a smile and nudged Lydia off the seat and in the direction of the two boys. As she passed Scott down the aisle he gave her a knowing grin. Damn him and his stupid werewolf senses.

Stiles looked away from the window and towards her as she sat down next to him, "Hey, uh thanks, as much as I love Scott and all he's not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed." He said with a grin, his whiskey coloured eyes shining in the afternoon sun –

Okay. _What_ was that? Focus Lydia.

She tried to focus, really she did. She caught bits and pieces of what he said like, "So did you work out the chemical composition of the rockcicles?" and "Since it's in ancient Greek maybe the sphere has something to do with Greek Gods?"

She tried so hard to pay attention but he was just so distracting, the way he practically shook with anticipation and curiosity, those eyes that she wanted to get lost in forever framed with long delicate lashes, that now longer hair she wanted to tangle her fingers in and those lips –

She stopped herself before a light moan escaped her lips.

This was definitely not normal Lydia behaviour. But recently her life had been anything but normal, especially since that motel –

She stopped herself again. She didn't like to think about that night. Or what had almost happened, what she had almost lost.

For the second time that day Stiles' voice brought her out of her thoughts.

"Lydia? You listening?" He asked, she blinked and quickly went over what she had half heard him say.

She nodded, "Chemical composition was Calcium Carbonate, obviously," she said with a smirk, "But there was also trace amounts of Copper Sulphate, which could account for the blue-green colour, and something else, I'll have to run some tests."

Stiles looked amazed at her for a moment before he smirked at her, "Careful Lydia, your genius is showing." She raised an eyebrow almost challengingly,

"Well if I can't let my genius out around you then who else?" She held out her hand, "Speaking of my genius,"

Stiles raised his eyebrows at her. "The sphere," She continued, "I might as well translate some of it while we're here, isn't that why you called me over?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh right, yeah." He mumbled while he rummaged about in his backpack for the rock. Once he's pulled it out from whatever crevice in his bag it was in, he held it up for her to see. She frowned; her life could never be simple could it? Oh, who was she kidding, she loved a challenge.

"What's wrong?" Stiles asked her, having read the expression on her face.

"Nothing it's just that I'm able to read the beginning and the end, yes, but the middle is a little more complicated." She hated sounding like she didn't know what she was doing.

"What do you mean 'more complicated'?" Stiles asked her sounding a little worried. She rolled her eyes at him,

"Don't worry, I can still translate it, it's just that because of the way that it's laid out I'll have to work out words, phrases at a time and then figure out an order that fits the full passage." Stiles nodded at her with only the smallest amount of confusion in his eyes.

"So what does the end say?" He asked as he watched her intently, not knowing that this made Lydia have to concentrate just a little bit harder. "It says," she paused for a second, making sure that she had read it correctly, _"Within you we lie, Repress and we thrive, Express and we die." _She looked up at him and bit her lip lightly.

"Is that good or bad?" He asked her, his eyes wide and looking for answers.

"I don't know Stiles. I don't know." She answered, meeting his searching gaze.

"Don't worry Lydia, with your brains and my incomparable research skills, we'll figure this out." He reassured her smiling slightly.

They had to figure this out, hopefully before anyone died. Funny, death seemed to be on her mind a lot lately. Well death and Stile –

Nope. She doesn't want to think about that.


	3. This Isn't Right

**Author's Note: IrisCandy here again. Yay, reviews! Reviews keep us going - we love you guys :3 Enjoy this next chapter!**

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"Are you still staring at that thing?" someone said, causing Stiles to hit his head on the ceiling of his locker and jump back, looking for the source of the voice.

Lydia stood there behind his locker door, looking slightly amused with her eyebrows raised and her arms crossed. There wasn't a day that went by when she didn't look gorgeous, but today she looked especially fine in a blue mini skirt and an extremely tight top and her hair was falling in her face in a way that framed her face so-

He looked away from her and tried to shake off the feeling. He was supposed to be getting _over_ this girl, not falling right back into his pointless boyhood crush. Stiles took out the sphere from his locker, watching the engravings light up in his hand for the billionth time. He cleared his throat.

"Lydia, there's something up with this thing, okay? It _knows _me," he explained, shoving the sphere in her face for emphasis.

She gently pushed his hand out of the way. "There's no possible way for you to know how technologically advanced that thing is. Its memory could rely on touch to activate the light inside."

Stiles looked at her incredulously, hiking his bag up onto his shoulder and shutting his locker. "Are you seriously still looking for scientific explanations for everything? Lydia, it's not activated by _touch; _it's activated by _my _touch."

"Okay, so maybe it's registered your fingerprint-"

"God, you are _un_believable," Stiles spat, shoving the sphere in the side pocket of his bag. Lydia looked startled and bewildered for a moment before offense crossed her face. Her constant reliance on science and logic spiked anger in him that he'd never felt with her before, and he just wanted to _hit _something because how could she be so incredibly-

He took a deep breath, and the feeling settled so suddenly, he felt dizzy.

"I'm sorry, I don't-"

Lydia just shook her head, but her eyes still read a kind of cautious and confused look that made her look vulnerable. He never liked that look on her face in the first place, but to have it directed at _him _made it a hundred times worse.

"I'm really sorry," he said earnestly, and the look faded on her face a little. "I don't know, I'm just really tired and I still have to go see Cora tonight-"

"Cora?" Lydia said suddenly, the look of vulnerability was completely wiped from her face now, and her eyes lit up with some intense feeling that Stiles could feel burning into his soul.

Stiles hesitated for a moment before continuing. "Yeah, we're getting together tonight. Apparently Derek flipped out on her the other night and she's still totally messed up over Boyd-"

"So she wants to talk to _you? _Why you?" Lydia asked urgently.

Stiles furrowed his brow at her. "I don't know, Lydia, why?"

Lydia stepped back and blinked, looking at the floor. "I- uh. I have to go."

"Lydia!" Stiles called, but she had turned on her heel and stalked away, even though Stiles knew for a fact that her next class was the opposite way.

Stiles had had a lot of strange conversations in his life, but that was by far the strangest of all. His feelings had been bouncing around inside his chest, unable to decide which should overwhelm the other. He had been so _angry _for a second there. He never let anger get the best of him, and yet it had come out due to Lydia just being _Lydia. _

And those dreaded feelings for her that he had become so accustomed to since third grade had come crawling back for a moment too, but Stiles had been having intelligent and purely G rated conversations with Lydia all the time for the past few months. There was absolutely no reason why he should have been feeling that way.

Was he bipolar? He must be bipolar. That was the only explanation. That, or maybe his Adderall wasn't mixing well with something he ate and it was screwing with his emotional compass.

He shook his head and took a deep breath, choosing to forget the conversation altogether and let Lydia blow off some steam in her next class. He would see her again in English class, and then they'd be fine again, because he couldn't fight with Lydia, he could never fight with Lydia-

Someone tapped on his shoulder and he gave one of his signature spasms before turning around to face Scott.

"Dude, calm down," Scott said with a laugh.

"Yeah, sorry," Stiles said, running a hand through his hair.

"Have you seen Allison?" Scott asked.

Stiles was about to respond, but Scott's eyes darkened a little and he cut him off. "She's not with Isaac is she?"

"Uhm, no? Maybe? How am I supposed to know-"

"Because you're my best friend," Scott replied.

"Right," Stiles said, nodding slowly and staring at his friend nervously.

"What?" Scott asked, his face slackening.

"Is it me or do you seem a little extra wolfish today?" Stiles said.

The bell rung before Scott could respond, and Stiles slapped him on the shoulder before making his way to his next class. He had to take a moment to remember if it was the full moon soon or not, but he was sure it wasn't for at least another two weeks. Maybe Scott was just having an off day.

Apparently, everyone seemed to be having an off day.

When he walked into class, he was greeted by a huge pair of feet resting on his desk, and with closer examination he concluded that said feet belonged to one Isaac Lahey.

"Dude, that's my chair," Stiles said.

"Yeah?" Isaac asked without looking at him. He seemed to be scrutinizing an ice breaker between his fingers.

"Yeah," Stiles confirmed, but Isaac made no sign that he was going to move. Stiles rolled his eyes. "Dude, I thought we were done with this big-bad-werewolf-who-can-do-whatever-he-wants crap."

Isaac looked up at that. "We are?"

Stiles just stared at the guy for a long while, but again, Isaac didn't move. Their teacher entered the room then, and Stiles made an irritated noise and sat in Isaac's chair instead. It really wasn't a big deal, he told himself.

It wouldn't have been a big deal yesterday, at least, but today Stiles felt like a ticking time bomb and Isaac was just testing his patience. He busied himself with grinding his teeth and tapping his pen against the desk, watching as the teacher told off Isaac for resting his feet on the desk.

Isaac didn't move, and sure Stiles could understand the werewolf's enjoyment in pissing S_tiles _off, but it wasn't like him to defy a teacher so bluntly. It wasn't like him to defy anyone of higher authority, really, and Stiles couldn't exactly blame him given his unfortunate childhood.

"Lahey," the teacher said forcefully.

"Okaaay," Isaac groaned, and he slid his legs off the desk in a manner similar to that of a zombie.

Stiles furrowed his eyebrows. Seriously, what the hell was wrong with his friends today? He found himself almost wishing _Jackson _were there to ponder the matter with him.

Stiles' phone buzzed while his teacher began his lecture, and he took it out of his pocket slyly. It was from Allison.

_You and Lydia want to come over for archery lessons after school? _

Well, that was incredibly random. The image of he and Lydia swarming a group of werewolves laden with bows and arrows popped up in his mind and made him want to laugh.

But maybe it wasn't such a bad idea, and Allison was skilled in many useful trades that they could learn if they sucked in archery.

_Sure_, he texted back.

He would have to cancel on Cora, which made him feel guilty but he felt she would understand given the reason of his ditching her. He knew she wanted him to protect himself.

He'd developed a friendship with the girl, and though it wasn't a friendship as potent as those he shared with Scott or Lydia, it was still there and he honored that. So he texted her as well.

_Reschedule? Allison wants to teach me self-defense or something. _

He knew she probably wouldn't reply right away, given that she was a werewolf with werewolfy things to do.

He heard his teacher sigh dramatically. "Stilinski, put your phone away."

Stiles did as he was told; waving his phone in the air and making sure his teacher saw him put it in his pocket. He looked out the window as his teacher turned back to his chalkboard, and saw a figure in the distance.

People were allowed to roam the Beacon Hills High lacrosse field when they felt like it, of course, but the way this guy was staring straight at Stiles was a little unnerving. He was far away, and Stiles couldn't make out the features of his face, but he just _knew _he was looking at him. He had a creepy Derek-esque manner about him, standing with his legs spread and his arms crossed like he was waiting for Stiles to make a move.

Stiles sat up straighter in his chair, and his first instinct was to look over at Isaac to see if he noticed anything supernaturally weird about the guy, but Isaac wasn't paying attention. He was sleeping, his mouth wide open and his arms hanging at his sides in his chair.

When Stiles looked back out the window, the guy was gone.

Great. Just another brooding, cryptic persona that Stiles had a strange feeling he was going to have to deal with soon enough.


	4. It's Just Hormones, Right?

**Author's Note: misfitwolves again! Oh my! All these reviews have been so nice and they make us so happy, so keep reviewing cause you readers and your reviews are just awesome!**

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Lydia wasn't sure what she was more upset about: the fact that Stiles had gotten so angry with her or that he was going to hang out with Cora that night. To be honest she sort of knew why she was upset about one of the two things; Stiles had never been angry with her before, no matter how shit she had treated him or how oblivious she had acted towards his feelings, he had never gotten angry at her. And the fact that he had just then…scared her. For one fleeting moment, Lydia felt a genuine and terrifying fear that there was a possibility that this boy, this boy who had been so utterly and completely in love with her since the third grade…might not be anymore. As much as she hated to admit it, Stiles' love for her had been the one steady and sure thing in what had become her crazy life; no matter what happened Lydia could count on it, could count on him.

While her fear faded slightly with his sincere and somewhat worried apology, it then flared up into an ugly jealous rage that Lydia didn't quite understand at the mention of Cora. Lydia didn't mind Cora per say, but what Lydia _did_ mind was Cora's touchy-feely crap when it came to Stiles; she didn't understand why the werewolf girl felt the need to always touch Stiles-

Wait. Had this always bothered her? Maybe it had and she'd never noticed because Stiles had never responded. Until now. Who did Cora think she was anyway? Stiles was Lydia's-

Lydia stopped abruptly in the middle of the hallway, blinded by her rage, all the thoughts running wildly through her head, and her slight confusion at said thoughts, she hadn't noticed that she had stormed off in the completely opposite direction to her class. Fabulous. Now she had to walk all the way back round, taking a completely different route to make sure that she didn't bump into the very person who had caused her to stalk off in her very high heels in the first place. Just fabulous.

Lydia strutted into her Government and Politics class seconds before the bell rang, without a single hair out of place. Taking her seat next to a rather unfortunate looking Goth girl whose name she knew but could never be bothered to recall, Lydia tried to mentally compartmentalise her thoughts and feelings whilst getting out what she needed.

The compartments in her mind held for the majority of the class until she hit the one obstacle that she could just never quite get past: the stupidity of others. For some reason other people's stupidity always got her riled up. She didn't understand how people could be so stupid; well, of course, she understood the science behind it, but she didn't _understand _it. This, along with her anger from earlier, was not a good mix. Next thing she knew, Lydia was standing, and ending a rather elegant rant at the girl next to her, with the words, "Your stupidity disgusts me."

Judging by the vitriol in her voice, the shocked faces of her classmates and the tear-filled eyes of the girl she was looking down upon; Lydia knew that this wasn't even the worst of her explosion.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," she said to the girl. She spun around, overwhelmed at the sea of faces before her. "I don't know –" she shook her head.

"I don't understand –" She cut herself off as she didn't know what to say, what to do, and the situation was reminding her far too much of when Peter was controlling her, so she grabbed her things and ran out of the classroom.

She ran into the girls' bathroom, dropping her bag on the floor before tightly gripping the sink and staring in the mirror, trying to take deep breaths.

_Was she having a panic attack? Was that was this was?_

When her genius brain decided to fail her and not give her an answer, she thought about the one person who could most likely help through this situation: Stiles. Lydia remembered that when they were younger he was prone to panic attacks and that once, _(at the end of third grade? Or was it the beginning of fourth?)_, she may have helped him through one with the use of her extensive knowledge and a promise that she would never die. She remembered the moment when he asked in a panicked and breathless whisper, with a desperate look in his wide, brown eyes, "Promise me you won't die Lydia, not like my mom, please."

It had been the way that his voice had broken on the please that had silenced any logical protests a nine year old Lydia Martin had come up with, and so she promised, pinkie promised even, which was a big deal for her elementary school self.

_Why was she remembering this? She'd never thought about that before? _

That was when she came to a very important realisation: _she had never cared before._

Lydia felt her breaths slowing down and becoming more even when she had a series of particularly vicious thoughts: _what makes you think that Stiles still cares? It's obvious that he likes Cora now and why shouldn't he? She's better than you._

Lydia snapped her head up so fast she nearly gave herself whiplash; she looked at herself in the mirror and stumbled back slightly. Her eyes were different. They were still green, yes, but they were different: they were darker, unnatural and flashed dangerously. If she didn't know any better she'd have said that her eyes were green with envy.

She blinked and as quickly as they had changed, her eyes were back to normal. She must have been lightheaded; her shortness of breath must've had her seeing things.

After a few more deep breaths, Lydia picked up her bag and walked out of the bathroom just in time to catch the bell signalling that she had to go to her next class: English. Which she had with Stiles. Great.

As she headed down the hallway, Lydia walked straight into Allison, "Hey Lydia, you okay?"

Lydia gave a slight nod, "Yeah I'm –"

"Great, so I already asked Stiles and he said yes but I'm assuming from the look on your face that you have no idea what I'm taking about?"

Lydia raised an eyebrow, "Your assumption would be correct."

Allison smirked, which confused Lydia for a moment. "Well after school, you and Stiles are coming over to learn archery."

For the second time during this conversation Lydia found herself raising an eyebrow. She sighed, too tired from what happened in her previous class and the bathroom to argue with or question her best friend. "Fine."

Allison beams at her, "Great, let's go." She says before she lightly grabbed Lydia by the arm and pulled her along.

As she walked down the hall, Lydia looked out of the large windows and spotted a figure on the lacrosse field. She found this odd because one, there wasn't a gym class today for the Juniors and this guy looked like he was in her grade, and two, he wasn't in gym kit. Sure, people can roam the Beacon Hills lacrosse field whenever they want but this guy seemed to have been staring at a spot in the distance, _(a classroom maybe?)_, before he turned and disappeared behind the bleachers. Urgh, whoever this person was, he seemed far too much like Derek for her liking.

Lydia walked into her English class behind Allison with as much of a confident and carefree attitude that she could muster and hesitated for only the shortest of moments before taking her seat by the window next to Stiles.

"Hey." She could hear the apologetic smile in his ever so slightly cautious voice,

"I'm sorry about earlier, I must be hormonal," she said before he could say anything else. Her tactic for him to not talk about their previous conversation had worked, according to the stunned and somewhat uncomfortable look on his face; she allowed herself a small smirk.

"Uh okay, um I'm sorry about snapping at you earlier, again." He looked down, clearly still a bit ashamed at himself for his outburst.

"It's fine," Lydia replied.

As she sensed that things were about to become a little bit awkward, Lydia changed the subject, "So you're driving me to Allison's later, right?"

He feigned shock and gasps, throwing a hand to his heart, "Lydia Martin wants to travel in my Jeep?"

She laughed and smacked him playfully on the arm. "Yes, now be quiet, Ms Blake's looking at us."

Still laughing he looked up at Ms Blake who was standing at the front looking right back to them.

While Stiles was looking at the teacher, Lydia took the opportunity to look at him: at each of the freckles that decorate his face, his hair that is now longer and suits him in a way that makes Lydia uncomfortable to admit, and those eyes. Those big, brown eyes, although, to Lydia, brown seems too bland a word to describe them. She was in the process to trying to think of a way to describe them; she was on the colour of whiskey as sunlight streams through it, when he interrupted her thoughts.

"Everyone's been acting a bit strange if I'm honest. Scott's been more wolfy, Isaac's going out of his way to piss people off and Allison, well, she just seems different." He explained to her, complete with his usual hand gestures.

"Allison has been acting a bit strange now that you mention it," Lydia said. Neither of them mentioned each other's strange behaviour but it's the small elephant in the room.

"What do you think it is?" Lydia asked and she could see that the question shocked him a little. She realised that no one has ever really asked him what his theories were. He had always just _said_ them. He blinked a few times before he answered.

"Um, I don't know, maybe we're all finally cracking from the stress of the supernatural." He laughed quietly and Lydia found herself laughing with him, though deep down she knew something was up. She, with Stiles' help of course, just needed to figure out what.


End file.
